The Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, will be the first of six EU prime ministers to visit China this autumn following the successful visit by President Clinton, it emerged in Beijing this week.
His progress will be watched closely by other European governments to see if the new positive tone in China's relations with the west, set during the US President's nine-day tour, will be maintained.
Mr Ahern is due to arrive in Beijing on September 14th, and will also visit Shanghai and Hong Kong. The British Prime Minister, Mr Tony Blair, will be hard on his heels, and visits by the prime ministers of Belgium, Finland, France and Spain have been scheduled for the following weeks.
The President of the European Commission, Mr Jacques Santer, will arrive in October, after a Brussels decision to elevate the EU-China relationship to presidential level.
The Irish Government's rapidly developing contacts with China have been timely. In February, the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Mr Andrews, was the first senior EU official to arrive in Beijing after the EU dropped its annual censure of China over human rights, and he was given an enthusiastic welcome by the then Premier, Mr Li Peng.
Mr Ahern is also assured of a warm reception as he will be the first European leader to travel to China since EU foreign ministers adopted a new policy document on China at the end of last month, stressing engagement rather than confrontation.
The revised policy seeks to strengthen political consultation with Beijing and bring the country more fully into global trade.
The Chinese government has welcomed the EU document, entitled Building a Comprehensive Partnership with China, and also the decision to hold annual EUChina summit meetings to strengthen ties between the two sides. The first such meeting took place in London in April.
The document arises from a resolution by EU foreign ministers in February to conduct a wide-ranging reappraisal of Europe's relations with China, taking into account its growing economic and political power.
The Taoiseach's agenda in September, when he will meet the Chinese Premier, Mr Zhu Rongji, who invited all the EU prime ministers to China, will be set by the priorities outlined in the document. These include a substantial political dialogue with China on issues such as human rights, world trade, the future of the UN, disarmament, arms control, drug trafficking, money laundering, organised crime and illegal immigration.
Critics of EU policy accuse Europe and the US - which has also dropped its annual condemnation of China at the UN Human Rights Commission - of playing down continuing human rights abuses in China in return for improving trade ties with Beijing. Hundreds of political prisoners remain in China's jails.
The foreign ministers in their defence said "the EU attaches particular importance to concrete progress in the human rights situation in China", and that the EU would continue to urge Beijing to sign and ratify the UN Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.
Beijing has promised to do so later this year and will almost certainly time this step to coincide with a visit to China on September 7th by Mrs Mary Robinson, the first ever visit by a UN Human Rights Commissioner.
The visit by Mr Blair, planned for October, will also be a pioneering one. He will be the first British prime minister to make the journey to Beijing since the return of Hong Kong to China just over a year ago, ending a period of megaphone diplomacy between the two countries.
It is understood that Mr Blair is seeking to emulate Mr Clinton's ground-breaking dialogue with the Chinese people on China's television network, covering such sensitive issues as the 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown, Tibet and human rights.
Mr Blair is seeking some forum to make contact with the masses in China, according to diplomatic sources.
The most senior Communist Party official jailed over the prodemocracy protest nine years ago has called on Mr Blair to speak out on human rights when he comes to Beijing, in the same public manner as Mr Clinton did. Mr Bao Tong (68), who spent seven years in labour camps and prisons for supporting the demands of the Tiananmen Square student demonstrators, told the London Times this week: "If Mr Blair would speak out, I think the Chinese people and those who are willing to promote political reform will feel very much encouraged."
In speaking to the Times, Mr Bao was defying a government order not to give interviews to western media. Diplomats say that if he and other dissidents who spoke out during Mr Clinton's visit are to be rearrested or punished, the upbeat tone of engagement set by Mr Clinton would be upset.
A senior Chinese academic at Peking University told The Irish Times, however, that the prospects for slow but continued political liberalisation in China were good.
"The leadership allowed President Clinton to say on television that Tiananmen was wrong and nothing happened," he said, referring to the joint press conference with Mr Jiang in Beijing at which Mr Clinton condemned the use of violence to end the pro-democracy student protests in 1989. "They will be encouraged by that. They will move forward towards democracy, step by step, as long as there is political stability."
Mr Ahern, who will be accompanied by an Irish trade delegation, is likely to be pressed by the Chinese to support the end of EU restrictions on the import of Chinese goods.
At a recent meeting with the British Deputy Prime Minister, Mr John Prescott, in Beijing, Chinese officials outlined their objections to anti-dumping measures and to an EU prohibition on the import of products such as frozen chicken and seafood. They said China was ready to open its markets step by step but the EU should first open its market to Chinese goods.
The EU ambassador to China, Mr Endymion Wilkinson, said recently that by the end of next year, the EU would become the second largest export market for China and both sides would have concluded their talks on China's accession to the World Trade Organisation.
The EU is currently mainland China's third biggest export target market, after the US and Japan, and bilateral trade reached $43 billion (£31 billion) last year.
EU direct investment in China has also been growing rapidly and reached $10.48 billion (£8 billion) at the end of last year. China, however, has been slow to open its financial and service markets, diplomats say, and last week the EU Trade Commissioner, Sir Leon Brittan, said China's bid to join the WTO had stalled and Beijing's early entry into the global trade body was unlikely.